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HUNTINGTON -- With one hard Ashton Hall and Ahmed Shakoor crack, Marshall -- literally -- knocked out its first challenge in the 2009 Friends of Coal Bowl.

On a third-and-8 from the West Virginia 49-yard-line, Jarrett Brown, the dynamic 6-foot-4, 223-pound quarterback for the Mountaineers, lunged for a first down when the two Thundering Herd defensive backs delivered a wallop on him that could have been heard from Morgantown to Huntington.

Out came the ball, out went Brown with a concussion.

There was still more than three quarters of football to play and Marshall had rival WVU down to its second-string true freshman signal caller Geno Smith.

"We really didn't get a chance to get a look at him on film, but we were pretty sure what kind of quarterback he was," Mario Harvey said of the thoughts that ran through the Herd's mind when Smith entered. "West Virginia always has a little running-type quarterback so we didn't change up the game plan that much."

But the Mountaineers did.

West Virginia turned its playbook to vanilla for the remainder of the first half, keeping things simple for an 18-year-old seeing his first real extended game action.

The move led to a lackluster offensive performance. The Mountaineers headed to the locker room for halftime trailing 7-3 with all of 84 yards of offense. Only 48 of those yards were produced with Smith at the helm.

But the Herd's wraps on him slowly came off in the second half. First came a confident 13-yard toss to Jock Sanders on a fourth-and-10. Later came a pretty 33-yard touchdown pass to a well-covered Arlic Arnett in the corner of the end zone.

Smith finished 15-of-21 for 147 yards and, in the mind of Marshall defensive end Vinny Curry, "won them that football game."

It was a 24-7 West Virginia victory that could have turned in Marshall's favor had Smith played the second half like he did the first.

"He 1-0 against us," Curry said. "My hat goes off to him. That's a great football team with a great quarterback."

Smith is no longer in Brown's shadow. Almost fittingly, the keys to the Mountaineer offense were handed to him in last year's Gator Bowl after Brown went down with an ankle injury in the second quarter.

Smith went on to complete 8-of-15 passes for 92 yards in a 33-21 loss to Florida State.

Last Saturday, in his first start, he sparked a big second half with an early scoring toss to Sanders.

All in all, it was a solid debut. The former runner-up to A.J. Graham for Florida's Mr. Football connected on 20 of his 27 throws and racked up 216 yards in a 31-0 win over Coastal Carolina.

"I wish I didn't recruit him now to be honest," said Herd head coach Doc Holliday, a former WVU assistant. "I thought that out there (at practice) and said, 'I wish I had not have gotten him.'

"He is a good player. He is mature and he makes good decisions. He will be a handful and he is a great kid."

But is he a great player -- a la Brown and Pat White before him?

Will Marshall get the the conservative, first-half Geno Smith or the aggressive, second-half Geno Smith on Friday?

The Herd's preparing for the best.

"The kid has it all," safety Omar Brown said. "Passing, running ability. We're just going to have to contain him in both areas."

"He's a great player," Curry said. "He's definitely 1-0 against us and you can't take that away from him."

The Herd's already seen a beefed-up and souped-up version of Smith this season. Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor features more athleticism and perhaps a better touch, but his style is comparable to West Virginia's quarterback.

"The guy we prepared for last week was a scrambler," Brown said. "This guy right here isn't as much as a scrambler -- he'll probably try to sit back more in the pocket and throw. But, at the same time, we still have to prepare for his scrambling ability."

Of course, Pryor's a Heisman Trophy candidate. Smith, on the otherhand, hasn't even started a game on the road yet.

That will change come 7 p.m. Friday when a packed Joan C. Edwards Stadium will anxiously see how he starts.

But a whole Marshall sideline will already know how he can finish.

"He won that game for them," Curry said.

West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith rolls out to pass during the third quarter against Coastal Carolina in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010, in Morgantown, W.Va.

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Mark Webb/The Herald-Dispatch

West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith hands the ball off to running back Noel Devine against Marshall during the college football game on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009, at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown.

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Mark Webb/The Herald-Dispatch

West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith prepares to run a play against Marshall during the college football game on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009, at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown.

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